Friday, May 15, 2015

William
F. Cody was born in Iowa in 1846 and grew up right here in Kansas.A true child of the prairie, he started
working at the age of eleven as a courier between wagon trains crossing the
plains and then he rode briefly for the Pony Express.During the Civil War he severed with the 7th
Kansas Cavalry and after the war worked as a scout for the U.S. Army.In 1867 and 1868 he was “loaned” to the
Kansas Pacific Railroad to hunt buffalo to feed the work crews laying the
tracks across the southern plains and from then on was known as “Buffalo Bill.”

There
was a real air of excitement in Junction City during the last week of September
in 1900 for the greatest exhibition of its kind was coming to our town.This was the famed “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West
Show.”For weeks the local newspapers
had been filled with ads touting this popular entertainment and colorful
broad-sides or posters depicting the “Great Scout” atop his white steed
decorated nearly every fence, barn, or light post in town.

Among
the collections at the GCHS Museum are several items which recall those shows
including a set of souvenir photographs of the famed showman and an elegantly
styled and elaborately trimmed “greatcoat.”The garment was obtained by an ancestor of Bob Waters from the auction
of equipment and gear that took place after the merger of the Buffalo Bill
& Pawnee Bill show went bankrupt in 1913.The coat was reportedly purchased during one of the show’s European tours
and, as it appears to be a lady’s garment, perhaps was worn by one of the
sharp-shooting cowgirls in the cast. The city was also playing host that on
September 28th to a brief visit from Teddy Roosevelt, who was then governor of
New York and was running for the U.S. Presidency.He had been touring the West by train and
stopped at Junction City’s depot to give a short speech from the platform of
his train.

Though rain and resultant mud
diminished the crowds for both events by half and those who attended the 2 p.m.
Wild West show saw the ring horses sink to their knees in muck, the Union of
September 29th, reported that Col. Cody was part of the reception committee of
5,000 which met the Roosevelt train at 5 p.m.

“Col. Cody’s entire mounted show was
drawn up in three lines on the north of the platform facing east.As the train pulled in, his command of
horsemen, gattling gun, and battery of light artillery gave a salute that
carried people off their feet.Gov.
Roosevelt was introduced and spoke for about 8 minutes, but few could hear
him.Col. Cody, who is a great admirer
off Roosevelt, and who has in his congress of Rough Riders many men who served
under Roosevelt in Cuba, made a stirring speech of two or three minutes.He is a strong speaker.The presence of Col. Cody was in itself no
small treat.He is himself a national
figure.

It was nine years later, again in
September that the “Great Scout” once more brought his entourage to Junction
City.By this time he had merged his
show with that of his rival, Col. Gordon “Pawnee Bill” Lillie, and the combined
extravaganza boasted an “oriental spectacle, historic dramas, ethnological
exhibits with typical casts, the Battle of Summit Springs and the Rough Riders
of the World led in person by the last of the great scouts, Col. Wm. F. Cody,
the original and only Buffalo Bill, who positively appears at every
performance.”

It was interesting to note that
during its one-day stop in Junction City, this troupe required 10,000 pounds of
bran, 7 tons of hay, 9 tons of straw, and 250 bushels of oats, all procured
locally.The show, which was mounted at
the grounds near the Union Pacific Roundhouse, required 30 acres of land and
every bit of that space was filled and several adjoining fields were also
occupied.According to the newspaper
account, not only the farmers and merchants were pleased when this troupe came
to town, but others as well.“The people
in this country and Fort Riley are a little partial; perhaps, to the Cody
attractions on account of the soldiers at the Post and the acquaintance formed
years ago when Cody was on the plains with the famous 7th Cavalry.”

As with many great showmen, Cody was
not a wise manager, and when he died in 1917 at the age of 71 he was penniless,
his touring companies having been sold to others.However, he was a true trouper, performing
right up to the end.And even at the
last, when he was broke and ill, “Buffalo Bill” Cody never ran out of dreams
and ideas for a bigger and better show that would share the West he loved with
the rest of the world.

Photo Caption:

This
souvenir photo, a memento of one of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Shows in Junction
City early in the century, shows the famed showman as he most liked to be
painted—dressed in buckskins, his long hair flowing free, and atop a white
horse.

Friday, May 8, 2015

While working on a
cemetery talk at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, I discovered a deeply rooted
community of Irish immigrants that settled in the McDowell Creek area in the
very early years of Kansas History. Their lives intersected in a number of ways
before they came together to build what is now St. Joseph Historic Church.

Many
of the early settlers of McDowell Creek emigrated from various counties in
Ireland in the mid-1840s, which might be attributed to the Irish Potato Famine,
the political unrest between Ireland and England, or just wanderlust.

One
of these pioneers was Michael Brannick. Born in Kilkenny Ireland, Michael
followed in his father’s trade as a stone mason, something that would serve him
well in Kansas. Michael came as a young man with his brother and sister to
America, first to New York and then to St. Louis. While his siblings settled in
those cities, Michael came to Kansas in 1856.

Michael
was first married to Bridget Lennon in January of 1862, but in November of
1862, five days after the birth of their first son, John, Bridget died. John
was fostered out to nearby neighbors, the Ryan family, who could care for him
better than his widowed father.

James
Ryan was born in Ireland between 1810 and 1820 and came to the United States in
the 1840s where he met his wife Martha Jane Shannon. Among the earliest
settlers of the area, the Ryans arrived in Geary County (then Davis County) in
1855.

When they first
arrived, those living in the area were living in tents or dugouts. The first
settlement built in the area of Ashland was built along the McDowell Creek due
to the availability of timber. The family- James, Martha Jane and a daughter,
Mary Ellen, moved into a log house 16x18 feet on July 25 1855.

In 1862, Mary
Ellen, the daughter of James and Martha Ryan and the adopted sister of John
Brannick, married Michael Brannick. Because there was no local Catholic church,
Michael and Mary Ellen had to wait to marry until a traveling priest came through
the area. The marriage took place in the Ryan log cabin and witnessed by fellow
Irish Catholic settlers, James and Catherine Tully.

Tully farm in 1950. After James and Catherine moved to Junction City, their
son Elisha "Lash" Tully kept it running.

In a story similar
to the Brannicks, James Tully emigrated from Ireland in the late 1840s before
coming to McDowell Creek in 1852, where he married his first wife who died
following the birth of their second child. Following his wife’s death, just
like Michael Brannick, James Tully fostered his children out to
neighbors—including the Burr family. And, like Michael Brannick, a few years
later James married a member of that family, Catherine Burr. And, also like the
Brannicks, James and Catherine had to wait until a traveling priest arrived
before they could be married.

St. Joseph's Catholic Church 1891

Eventually this
Catholic community on McDowell Creek decided they needed their own church, so
they would no longer have to practice their faith in their homes, and wait for
traveling priests to arrive before taking part in Catholic sacraments. In 1870,
the Ryans donated land for the St. Joseph Catholic Church. Michael Brannick,
the stonemason, took a role building the church and two years later in 1872,
the church was completed on McDowell Creek.

The church was
later rebuilt in 1910 though the original stonework was used in the foundation
of the new church. The church was active until the 1980s when it was closed.
The windows were removed and it fell into disrepair. Now, the Friends of St. Joseph's Church and the Geary County Historical Society are actively trying to
restore this beautiful historic building. If you are interested in contributing
to the St. Joseph’s restoration project, please contact the museum at
785-238-1666, or gearyhistory@gmail.com.

Friday, May 1, 2015

District 30 School or Antelope School is located in
southern Geary County on Cut Off Road in a stand of evergreen trees that act as
a wind break for the little limestone schoolhouse. District 30 was organized in 1877, and classes
were held in a frame building about a half mile north of the present day
schoolhouse until 1890. According to Roy Swenson the remnants of the stone
foundation are still in that location(Project
Heritage, 255).

According to the school records, the board for
District 30 decided the construction of the stone schoolhouse could not exceed
more than $800. The contract to build the school was awarded to Emery Lowery
for $765. He had to secure the bond to build it or forfeit the bid to the next
lowest bidder, John Rolf. Originally, the stone building had a cupola, which
was later removed because it caused a downdraft of smoke into the building. For
accessory buildings, Jas. T. Freeman was awarded a contract to build two
privies “complete in a workman-like manner for $20.”(Project Heritage, 256). One privy, not sure if it’s the original,
is still on the property looking a little worse for wear.

In the early years, with limited funding, country
schools often had very little in the way of provided learning materials.
Schools typically had wall maps, a globe, and sometimes a library. In 1892 a
library was purchased for Antelope at a cost of $44. “Mrs. Swenson remembered the library well and
said that it consisted of a set of books called ‘Rolla’s Tour In Europe’”(Project
Heritage, 256). Despite the limited materials the students learned a lot.
Teachers could provide their own books to teach from, and people in the
district could add their own books to the school’s library as well.

“Children then had few of the advantages enjoyed by
the children of today, but at the same time they had fewer distractions and
thus had more time to concentrate, so they did learn, they learned well. They
also respected and obeyed the teacher, which is a plus factor in any school,”
Flossie Buckley Swenson, the teacher at Antelope in 1921, said of the school.

Like today, once that last school bell of the day
rings, students flooded out the doors to freedom. Sometimes it was just the
feeling of freedom walking home from school or talking with friends, before
they had to work on the farm, but it was a taste of freedom nonetheless.
Students also enjoyed their freedom by lingering on the grounds to play with
friends. This, in the days of horse drawn buggies, could be disastrous, as some
Amthaur girls found out.

Viola and Ada Amthaur drove to and from school in a
horse drawn buggy driven by Ada. The horse, like those at many other country
schools, was kept in the barn or a shelter until it was time to go home at the
end of the day. Ada would hitch the horse and buggy and pick up the rest of the
children. “One evening [while] they decided to play a bit, the horse, buggy,
lunch pails and books started for home.”(History of the Andrew Amthauer Family,
71). The children all had to walk home, the horse, I’m sure, was eager to get
home to his feed and was not going to wait around all hitched up and loaded
down while the children got to play.

It’s important to note, that while children from
yesteryear are often described as better behaved than children of today there
were still discipline problems. The teach was often the one that handled the
discipline of the students whether it be with a reprimand, an order to stand in
the corner, assigning the student to beating erasers, or the dreaded paddle
discipline was typically handled in-house.

However, as we discovered in the school records for
Antelope, sometimes the Board of Education was called in to handle discipline
problems. “At one special meeting the director [of the school board] was
ordered to go to the school and suspend for 20 days one pupil, ‘or two if
necessary’ disobeying the rules and regulations. Apparently this did not
completely solve the problem for again the next year, upon complaint of the
teacher, the board met to investigate disobedience of the rules and agreed that
the pupil must come before the school, ‘acknowledge that he had done wrong and
was sorry for it and ask the teacher is he could come back—or stay out of
school for ten days and then ask the teacher and the school board if he could
come back”(Project heritage 257).

Antelope School was open for 79 years. In June of 1956
a vote led to the annexation of Antelope School to Joint District #73, Dwight
Grade School in Morris County. The land, school, piano, and out buildings were
given to Liberty Township and it was used as a polling place and meeting hall.

Reunions for all the past students and teachers were
held at the School until 1971. Families who’d attended the school gathered for
socializing, picnicking, and generally a good time. Often teachers were
recognized, and the family with the most members present received a prize.
According to Flossie Buckley Swenson, the Soderberg and Erickson families won
that prize the most often.

If you or a family attended Antelope School, or any
other Geary County country school and have memories, papers, or photos to share
please contact the museum. GearyHistory@gmail.com
or

Geary County Museums

The Museum is open Tuesday-Sunday 1-4 and is closed for holidays.There are three floors of exhibits, both permanent and rotating. We have a wonderful gift shop where you can buy trinkets for yourself or others. The Museum building is available for rent, email for more information. We have three Satellite sites available upon request.